Sponsored
by Oil Firm
ENI, UNCA's
Dag Promotes
Sri
Lanka
Ambassador
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 30 --
In the
campaign by Reuters,
Agence
France
Press, Voice of
America
and other
board members
of the UN
Correspondents
Association
to
dis-accredit
Inner City
Press and slow
the growth of
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
the arguments
have shifted.
They've gone
from stealth
complaints
and requests
to
dis-accredit
to anonymous
posts implying
terrorist
funding,
or now funding
by countries'
Mission to the
UN.
Neither
is
true, but the
allegation is
ironic from
UNCA, since
even the
program of its
December
19, 2012 ball
-- for which
it charged
$250 a
plate --
lists as
funders not
only countries
but, among
others, the
Italian oil
company ENI,
which also
purchased the
back page of
UNCA's
2012
Directory.
Beyond
ENI,
full page ads
were purchased
from UNCA by
an Italian
eyewear
firm I-Velvet
("Italia
Independent"),
Benetton,
Royale Air
Maroc, the
ginseng cream
Sulwhasoo,
J.Estina,
watchmaker
Romanson,
and "Royal
Gold La
Bagnaia,"
built by
Marisa
Riffeser of
the family
owning the
newspaper of
UNCA's then
President.
So a composite
UNCA supporter
could grease
up with Sulwhasoo,
put on the
I-Velvete
shades and
Romanson watch
and play golf
in Tuscany.
Where does the
investigative
journalism
come in?
Even
the awards
that UNCA gave
out were to
media groups
which bought
full
page ads in
UNCA's
program. The
ostensibly
beneficiary,
UNCA-affiliated
Dag
Hammarskjold
Fund for
Journalism, is
also funded
by countries'
mission and
the same
Italian oil
company.
Even
UN
Correspondents
Association's
faded jewel
the "Dag" has
been corrupted
by the UNCA
Executive
Committee and
its lack of
conflict of
interest
rules.
In
late 2011 and
the first half
of 2012,
UNCA's
then-president
tried to
expel Inner
City Press for
its reporting
on the Sri
Lankan
Mission's
UNCA film
screening
denying war
crimes, after
a past
financial
relationship
with -- the
renting of one
of Pioli's
apartments
some years ago
when he was a
UN official to
-- Sri Lanka's
now Ambassador
to the UN,
Palitha
Kohona.
Click here
for the report
by
the Sri Lanka
Campaign,
led by former
Secretary
General Kofi
Annan's
Director of
Communications
Edward
Mortimer.
Then
in 2012 the
UNCA-affiliated
Dag
Hammarskjold
Fund for
Journalism
chose as one
of its four
fellows a
journalist
from Sri Lanka
who
conducted
laudatory
interviews
with the same
Sri Lankan
Ambassador,
Kohona.
Click as
simply two
examples here
(quoting
"Doctor"
Kohona that
Ban Ki-moon's
"internal
report will
not affect Sri
Lanka"), and here
(YouTube
praise of UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon).
Again, where
does the
investigative
journalism
come in?
"The
Dag" also
takes money
from the
Italian oil
firm ENI, and
has on its
board the Voice of
America
reporter
Margaret
Besheer
who pushed to
expel Inner
City Press
along with
other former
and current
UNCA Executive
Committee
members and
the past --
and current? -
UNCA
President.
These
are all
pictured in
the "Dag"
section of
UNCA's
glassed-in
bulletin board
, which the
UNCA
leadership
demands to UN
Media
Accreditation
be the only
voice on on
the UN's press
floor walls.
(ENI,
presumably,
could post an
advertisement.)
Sometimes
it's hard to
keep track:
does UN Media
Accreditation
and Department
of Public
Information
work for
UNCA's
Executive
Board -- that
is, for
Reuters, AFP
et al. -- or
does UNCA work
for the UN's
Herve Ladsous
and even Ban
Ki-moon?
That's why
they call it
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
As
a number of UN
correspondents,
and now some
UN diplomats
and
officials have
opined, UNCA's
leadership has
taken a turn
toward the
"disgusting."
Their response
to on the
record
criticism with
anonymous
posts alleging
terrorist
financing is a
last straw.
Watch this
site.
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